Six uncomfortable truths about women’s health
From misdiagnosis to medical bias, women are still less likely to be taken seriously, diagnosed or treated – here’s why.
Women are living longer than ever. But they are not living better. If anyone says, “we've already achieved gender equality”, or asks, “has equality gone too far”, point them to health – a basic human right that is still not guaranteed for all people.
Because across the world, women are more likely to have their pain dismissed, their symptoms misread, and their conditions diagnosed too late. This is the result of a medical system that was not designed with women in mind.
From the tools still used in examinations to the data that shapes diagnosis and treatment, the gaps are built into healthcare systems, and they have real consequences for women’s health, safety, and quality of life.
This is what gender inequality looks like in our everyday life, and it needs to change: research that reflects women’s bodies, healthcare that takes women’s pain seriously, and systems that are designed with dignity, accurate diagnoses and treatments, and respect for women’s and girls’ bodies.
1. Your gynaecological exam hasn’t changed much in 150 years
The speculum – the tool used in pelvic exams – looks almost identical to when it was first designed in the 19th century.
Before antibiotics. Before anaesthesia was standard. Before women could even vote in most countries.
For generations, women have been told discomfort is normal – part and parcel of being a woman.
Now things are starting to shift. Women-led startups and femtech innovators are rethinking the pelvic exam with comfort, dignity, and safety at the centre.
But change is slow, and uptake of redesigned tools remains limited across public healthcare systems.
2. Women live longer but spend more of life in poor health
Women live longer than men – 73.8 years compared to 68.4. But women spend 25 per cent more of their lives in poor health.
That means women spend more years dealing with chronic pain, fatigue, untreated conditions, misdiagnosis, and often being told their symptoms are psychological.
A longer life doesn’t mean a better life.
For many women, it means spending longer being dismissed, disbelieved and neglected – even by the medical system.
3. If it affects women, it’s overlooked. If it affects men, it’s funded.
Premenstrual syndrome, also known as PMS, affects the majority of women and girls. For many, it means recurring pain, fatigue and psychological distress that disrupts daily life for days at a time, month after month.
Erectile dysfunction affects far fewer men, and yet this condition receives significantly more research focus and funds.
For decades this imbalance has shaped how women’s pain is understood, or misunderstood, dismissed, and too often normalised and left unaddressed.
That is beginning to change.
In 2023, Spain became the first country in Europe to grant women paid menstrual leave – joining Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Zambia. The new law recognises that menstrual pain can be severe and deserves medical support and time to recover.
But laws on paper don’t necessarily sway real life. And since the law was introduced, uptake remains low with stigma still preventing many women from taking the leave they need and are entitled to.
What’s needed now is not just legislation, but visibility – open conversations, informed healthcare providers, and leadership that normalizes women’s health needs instead of sidelining them.
4. It can take nearly a decade to diagnose your pain
Endometriosis affects 1 in 10 women and girls worldwide – around 190 million women. Yet diagnosis and treatment take between 4 and 12 years on average.
That is years of living with chronic pain, fatigue, and inflammation while being told nothing is wrong and that the pain is normal.
Years of adapting your life around a condition that hasn’t been named.
Conditions like endometriosis are not rare. That is not the issue.
The issue is that women’s pain is still too often dismissed, delayed, or misdiagnosed. And when pain isn’t taken seriously, diagnosis comes too late.
5. Women were missing from medical research until the 1990s
Until 1993, women were largely excluded from clinical trials.
This means that for decades, treatments and medicines were built around male bodies and were never properly tested on females:
- Drug dosages were based on male biology
- Symptoms were defined using male bodies
- Side effects in women were often missed
The consequences are still with us.
Women are more likely to experience adverse drug reactions. Their symptoms are more likely to be misread. And conditions that primarily affect women, such as autoimmune diseases, remain under-researched.
Even today, major gaps persist and are being reproduced in new ways. From clinical research to AI tools used in healthcare, data that underrepresents women continues to shape how diseases are studied, diagnosed, and treated.
Recent research has highlighted the importance of integrating sex and gender into clinical studies – including during the COVID-19 response – to ensure that treatments are safe and effective for everyone.
Another issue is that women are underrepresented in healthcare leadership. This matters because female doctors and leaders often prioritize patient-centred care, evidence-based practices, and policies that improve women’s health outcomes. For instance, older patients treated by female physicians in the U.S. had lower mortality and readmission rates, and districts in India with more women leaders saw lower neonatal mortality.
Supporting women in leadership, both in health sectors and beyond, means saving lives and more effective care for everyone.
6. Your symptoms don’t match the textbook and that can cost you your life
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women. But the classic symptoms – chest pain radiating down the arm – are based largely on how heart attacks present in men.
Women’s symptoms can look different: fatigue, nausea, shortness of breath, or pain in the jaw or back.
Because these signs are less recognised, women are less likely to receive timely, life-saving treatment – such as angioplasty or stents.
As a result, women have a higher risk of death after a heart attack compared to men.
And in some cases, they are sent home instead of treated.
SDG 3
Good health and well-being
Explore SDG3 and how women's health and well-being are faring globally.
